Then, there was the picture of Mr. Schock, a Republican congressman from Illinois, in a pink-checked shirt, turquoise belt and white jeans at a White House picnic. According to the blogosphere, the image was “jamming up the gay staff listserv” on Capitol Hill.

“Obviously, it was what I thought was a sporty outfit,” Mr. Schock said of his picnic attire. “It was probably a little too bright, in retrospect.”

At 29, Mr. Schock is the youngest — and arguably the buffest — member of Congress. A farm boy who grew up in Peoria, he was voted the “hottest freshman” in Congress by readers of The Huffington Post, who in a later poll also voted him hotter than Scott Brown, the Massachusetts senator and former Cosmopolitan centerfold. Last fall Mr. Schock was featured in a photo spread in GQ, wearing dapper suits about town.

“I think D.C. is becoming kind of a cool place to be, and so as a young person coming to Congress last year, it’s been fun for me,” he said in an interview in his fifth-floor suite in the Cannon House Office Building. “I’m not only getting to do the job that I ran for office to do, but I think I’m also getting to participate in the new D.C., if you will.”

He goes home to Peoria almost every weekend after the last vote, but his youth and enthusiasm seem to have given him a mystique that he is happy to cultivate.

“I enjoy the new restaurants, I enjoy some of the social events I’ve been invited to, and I think my age has allowed me into some of those activities,” he said. “I’m on people’s minds.”

With square jaw, white teeth and glinting brown eyes, Mr. Schock hits the gym nearly seven days a week. That’s more than enough to pass for a hunk in the halls of Congress, where, most people would admit, there is not a lot of competition. (After all, this is a town that considered the outgoing White House budget director Peter Orszag a player.)

Aside from Mr. Brown, Mr. Schock’s biggest rival on the hottie list is John Thune, the lean, blue-eyed, 49-year-old Republican senator from South Dakota who has been the subject of presidential whispers, fueled in part by his height and good looks. In The Huffington Post reader poll on hot freshmen congressmen, Glenn Nye (a 35-year-old Democrat from Virginia) and Jared Polis (a 35-year-old Democrat from Colorado) came in second and third.

As for Mr. Schock, his résumé oozes Norman Rockwell quaintness: at age 5, he ran the phones for his siblings’ strawberry business; at 18, he bought his first piece of real estate with money earned at after-school jobs; at 19, he won a seat on the Peoria school board.

Elected to Congress in 2008, he serves on three committees, and Eric Cantor, the House minority whip, gave him a leadership role, naming him a deputy whip. One of his mentors, Paul Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, likes to tell what has come to be known as “the Air Force One story,” about Mr. Schock’s trip to Peoria with President Obama.

Photo

Aaron Schock at Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro in Washington.Credit
Andrew Councill for The New York Times

It was in February, when the president was trying to round up votes for his stimulus package and invited Mr. Schock to join him aboard Air Force One. Mr. Obama was giving a speech at a Caterpillar plant in Mr. Schock’s home district, and publicly urged him to support the bill. The next day, Mr. Schock went ahead and voted nay, unswayed by the president.

“When there was incredible pressure placed upon him, he stood with his principles,” Mr. Ryan said. “That took guts.”

And while Mr. Schock’s legislative record may not have made much of an impression yet, it’s not because he isn’t thinking about what needs to get done.

“Our strategy with young people needs to be economic issues,” he said, listing the unemployment numbers for 20-somethings. The state of the economy, he said, may be a chance to “bring more young people into feeling comfortable for voting for Republican candidates, when they might not otherwise naturally think so.”

As for his personal life, Mr. Schock is single and opposed to gay marriage, and he has told reporters that he is not gay. In the interview in his office, he mentioned a former girlfriend. He also said that while he is passionate about all issues, the social ones are “not what compelled me to run for office.”

“Your belief system tends to be a function of how you were raised,” Mr. Schock said. “Being raised in the Midwest and in a relatively conservative household, my views were shaped by my upbringing, by my Christian faith.”

So, how did he feel about joining the ranks of Liza Minnelli and Lady Gaga as a gay icon, albeit for the Washington set?

He was quick to dismiss the frenzy, saying the pictures were just a distraction. As for those who admire his physique, “If they’re in my district, I’ll take votes wherever I can get them,” he said. “Who knew I could get this much attention with my shirt on?”

And he is happy to offer up the back story behind the TMZ photo, which shows him reclining with legs splayed in swim trunks by a pool, showing off glistening washboard abs. “It’s a funny story,” Mr. Schock said, and began to tell it.

When he ran for the Peoria school board, his opponent got him kicked off the ballot on a technicality. Mr. Schock engineered a grass-roots write-in campaign and won by 1,942 votes. Bob Hall, the lawyer for his opponent, soon became one of his biggest supporters, and one day when Mr. Schock — then the youngest state representative in Illinois — was lounging by the pool at the River City Athletic Club, Mr. Hall’s daughter popped up behind him in a bikini and asked for a photo.

“And so I looked at the photo and said, ‘All right, if that ever gets out, I’m going to kill you guys,’ ” he said with a grin.

Naturally, the picture did get out, shortly after he reached the Hill. And it has helped to cement his status as a “cool” politician — one whom senior members ask for Facebook tips, one who will have a cameo on “Top Chef” as a guest judge, and one who offered up the top 10 songs on his iPod playlist for Politico. (It is heavy on oldies like Van Morrison’s
“Brown Eyed Girl”
and Huey Lewis’s
“Power of Love”
but also has some more recent songs by Usher and Gavin DeGraw.)

In Washington, Mr. Schock fills his nights with work receptions and dinners. He enjoys trying restaurants like the newly opened Buddha Bar, and Tosca, Prime Rib, Bistro Bis and Nora are among his favorites.

And back in Peoria, well-meaning constituents are eager to play matchmaker.

An article last Thursday about Representative Aaron Schock, an Illinois Republican, misidentified the legislative position held by John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, in some copies. He is a member of the Senate, not the House of Representatives.

A version of this article appears in print on July 8, 2010, on page E1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Congressman’s Abs Garner Yeas. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe